Russia suffers heavy losses in blitzkrieg failure
Russia has suffered heavy losses in a large-scale armoured assault to encircle a strategically important town in Ukraine’s eastern Donestsk region, open source analysis has shown.
Analysts said Kyiv’s forces took out dozens of tanks and other armoured vehicles during Moscow’s two-day offensive operation to encircle the settlement of Avdiivka.
Russian troops attempted a blitzkrieg-style advance on the town in what was seemingly a shift away from its previous reluctance to use heavy armour in an attempt to make sweeping gains.
Geolocated footage showed the Russians had made gains five miles to the north-west of Avdiivka and four miles to the north and west of the settlement.
The bulk of Moscow’s forces are concentrated south-west of the town, according to military analysts.
Vitaliy Barabash, head of the town’s administration, has described the Russian push as “the largest-scale offensive action in our sector since the full-fledged war began”.
But the advance has seemingly faltered after hitting Ukrainian defensive lines consisting of minefields and anti-tank positions.
Ukraine’s general staff said that up to three Russian battalions, supported by tanks and armoured vehicles, had launched the assault on Avdiivka.
Battlefield footage on social media in recent days appeared to show Ukrainian efforts to bring the offensive back under control.
In one clip, a Russian armoured advance of at least a dozen vehicles north of Avdiivka was spotted by a Ukrainian drone before artillery fire was able to halt the advance.
Another clip, apparently captured by a Ukrainian reconnaissance team, shows a Russian column moving along a road, before the lead vehicle slips over the side of a pontoon bridge.
A bridge between Horlivka and Yasynuvata, two towns to the east of the assault, was destroyed by Ukrainian forces.
In one picture of the incident, a Russian 3-STS “Akhmat” armoured vehicle can be seen destroyed under the wreckage of the fallen crossing.
Ukrainian military analysts have estimated that Moscow lost at least 36 vehicles in the two-day assault on Avdiivka.
Russian losses included at least one of each of their four main table tanks: the T-62, T-72, T-80 and T-90.
‘We are holding our ground’
Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, said on Thursday: “We are holding our ground. It is Ukrainian courage and unity that will determine how this war will end. We must all remember this.”
The town, once home to 30,000 people, is seen as an important point in Ukraine’s defensive lines and considered the “gateway to Donetsk”.
It is a suburb of the city of Donetsk and has been on the front line of the war since the initial Donbas invasion in 2014.
Russian sources claimed the advance was made possible by Russian forces applying lessons they had learned from earlier battles with Ukraine in the south.
Instead of using human wave attacks, Moscow’s commanders were able to integrate assault groups, aerial reconnaissance and artillery fire in order to advance.
